jihadhttp://elevatedifference.com/taxonomy/term/1100/all
enFour Lionshttp://elevatedifference.com/review/four-lions
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<div class="author">Directed by <a href="/author/chris-morris">Chris Morris</a></div><div class="publisher"><a href="/publisher/drafthouse-films">Drafthouse Films</a></div> </div>
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00466HNKO?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=feminrevie-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B00466HNKO">Four Lions</a></em>, produced and directed by Chris Morris, satirizes terrorists and the response to terrorism in modern Britain. Every character is flawed and every person is spoofed. No one is spared; police, politicians, local working stiffs, neighborhood religious fanatics, and the floozie next door are lampooned with great one-liners and riotous insults. This may sound insensitive, but the humor does not obscure hard issues. Rather, it makes them approachable: you’ll likely want to talk about this funny and unexpectedly sad film after seeing it.</p>
<p>The film’s strength is in offering a point of view that for most is simply unthinkable and unsympathetic: the perspective of four British Muslims who attempt jihad and plot suicide bombings. Morris’s incompetent and conflicted would-be martyrs are mostly likable oafs, the gang that couldn’t shoot straight, as if <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00068WOH8?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=feminrevie-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B00068WOH8">Harold and Kumar</a></em> waged jihad under the tutelage of <a href="http://twitter.com/alqaeda">Twitter’s Al Qaeda</a>. This sympathetic perspective is most disturbing as each meets his violent end, sometimes regretfully. The humor makes discussion possible.</p>
<p>I was deeply curious to see this film because I wondered whether the balance of humor and serious issues could be applied to this topic. I’m not convinced that such satire would work with more nuanced matters than suicide bombers or topics that are not thoroughly polarized. Polarization made <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00007K028?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=feminrevie-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B00007K028">Citizen Ruth</a></em> work, but the difficulties presented by more subtle issues may be the reason that humor is rarely used to promote discussion. It’s not easy to be funny or enlightening, and to do so at the same time seems near impossible when talking about something, well, serious.</p>
<p>While <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00466HNKO?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=feminrevie-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B00466HNKO">Four Lions</a></em> is a great discussion tool, it is less successful as entertainment. It’s funny, and the characters are always engaging, but the story wanders a bit because it’s both satire and buddy movie, and these elements do not entirely work together. The film does not have universal appeal. That said, the biggest downside is that you may never get rid of the earworm <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yBnIUX0QAE">“Dancing in the Moonlight”</a> after the movie ends.</p> <div>
<span class="reviewer-names"><strong>Written by:</strong> <a href="/reviewer/melissa-ditmore">Melissa Ditmore</a></span>, November 5th 2010 </div>
<div class="tag-list">Tags: <a href="/tag/britain">Britain</a>, <a href="/tag/humor">humor</a>, <a href="/tag/islam">Islam</a>, <a href="/tag/jihad">jihad</a>, <a href="/tag/muslim">Muslim</a>, <a href="/tag/satire">satire</a></div> </div>
http://elevatedifference.com/review/four-lions#commentsFilmsChris MorrisDrafthouse FilmsMelissa DitmoreBritainhumorIslamjihadMuslimsatireFri, 05 Nov 2010 21:33:00 +0000beth4305 at http://elevatedifference.comVelvet Jihad: Muslim Women’s Quiet Resistance to Islamic Fundamentalismhttp://elevatedifference.com/review/velvet-jihad-muslim-women%E2%80%99s-quiet-resistance-islamic-fundamentalism
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<div class="author">By <a href="/author/faegheh-shirazi">Faegheh Shirazi</a></div><div class="publisher"><a href="/publisher/university-florida-press">University of Florida Press</a></div> </div>
<p>Central to Islamic scripturalist assertion, or "Islamic fundamentalism" as it is often referred to, is the notion of the ideal Muslim woman, whose status, roles and functions are defined by rules and norms deriving from a narrow, restrictive and patriarchal reading of the Islamic scripturalist tradition. The ‘ideal’ Muslim woman in Islamic ‘fundamentalist’ discourse is defined as being submissive to male authority, while being modest and virtuous in a patriarchally-defined sense. She is to be carefully controlled and monitored, at all times, by patriarchal authority. The spread of Islamic ‘fundamentalism’ throughout Muslim communities has had seriously negative consequences for Muslim women’s rights and status. Not surprisingly, groups of Muslim women across the world have begun mobilizing against Islamic ‘fundamentalism’, some on a secular basis, using secular human rights arguments, others, working within a broadly-defined Islamic tradition, employing Islamic arguments for achieving gender equality and challenging patriarchy and misogyny in the name of Islam.</p>
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813033543?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=feminrevie-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=0813033543">Velvet Jihad</a></em> provides a fascinating general picture of the status and conditions of women in Muslim communities around the world faced with the challenge of Islamic scripturalist assertion. Shirazi admits that patriarchy is, of course, not a Muslim-specific phenomenon, but argues that the forms that it takes in Muslim communities and Muslim-majority countries makes it particularly problematic and difficult to oppose in that it is generally sought to be legitimised in the name of religion. Hence, challenging such patriarchy is a particularly arduous task as it is easily branded as a challenge to religion itself. The book catalogues a long list of hurdles and restrictions that millions of Muslim women across the world are subjected to in the name of Islam.</p>
<p>With abysmal levels of education, and being economically heavily dependent on their men folk, it is not surprising that vast numbers Muslim women simply have no choice but to accept their lot. Many, as Shirazi tells us, even accept this as mandated by Islam itself. Yet, Shirazi tells us there is what she colourfully calls a "velvet jihad" astir in across numerous Muslim communities spearheaded by bold Muslim women who are now vocally and stridently challenging all forms of oppression in the name of Islam. She likens it to the "velvet revolution," a peaceful movement of resistance that brought down communist dictatorships in eastern Europe in the late 1980s.</p>
<p>What, then, are the means that assertive Muslim women (and there are many, as Shirazi documents) are today adopting to fight patriarchy and misogyny in the name of Islam? They fall into two broad categories. Some Muslim women, who may be defined as "Muslim feminists," are seeking to oppose patriarchal laws, rules, and practices using modern human rights arguments, such as secularism, freedom, justice, and democracy, linking up with reformers, both men and women, both within their communities and countries and at the international level, to highlight the oppression of women in the name of Islam. Shirazi describes numerous such Muslim women’s groups across the world which are using this approach, with varying degrees of success. This strategy might not, however, have much resonance with religious-minded Muslims, who could easily be made to be believe that such arguments for women’s rights are not just "un-Islamic," but, rather, represent, as it is often put, an "anti-Islamic, Western conspiracy." Indeed, that precisely is what Islamic conservatives and radicals never tire of arguing.</p>
<p>A more culturally-rooted, and, therefore, for many practising Muslims, perhaps a more acceptable way of shaping demands for gender equality and of critiquing misogyny and patriarchy in the name of Islam, Shirazi points out, is represented by the phenomenon often labeled as "Islamic feminism." Not all the women (and men) who are engaged in articulating an Islamic feminist discourse and politics might, however, identify with that label, given the political and ideological baggage associated with the term <em>feminism</em>. Be that as it may, Islamic feminism, Shirazi shows by drawing on empirical evidence from extensive fieldwork in Africa, Asia, Europe, and America as well as a massive corpus of literature available on the Internet, is today a growing challenge to the authoritarian, deeply-patriarchal versions of Islam zealously upheld both Islamic conservatives and ‘fundamentalists’, who, despite their differences, are almost unanimous on the "women’s question."</p>
<p>Citing the works—both literary as well as practical—of a vast number of Muslim women scholars and activists as they seek to counter patriarchy in the name of Islam, Shirazi concludes that their valiant efforts, derided and fiercely opposed by powerful patriarchal forces, truly herald the arrival of a velvet jihad, one that can play a key role in not just championing Muslim women’s rights but also in fashioning more compassionate and just understandings of Islam while critiquing and standing up to violent, authoritarian, patriarchal mullahs and Islamists who claim to represent Islamic authenticity. That, in short, is what this inspiring book is all about.</p>
<p>A longer, more in-depth version of this review can be found at <em><a href="http://www.countercurrents.org/sikand240710.htm">CounterCurrents</a></em></p> <div>
<span class="reviewer-names"><strong>Written by:</strong> <a href="/reviewer/yoginder-sikand">Yoginder Sikand</a></span>, August 19th 2010 </div>
<div class="tag-list">Tags: <a href="/tag/conservative">conservative</a>, <a href="/tag/fundamentalism">fundamentalism</a>, <a href="/tag/islam">Islam</a>, <a href="/tag/jihad">jihad</a>, <a href="/tag/muslim">Muslim</a>, <a href="/tag/muslim-women">muslim women</a>, <a href="/tag/patriarchy">patriarchy</a>, <a href="/tag/resistance">resistance</a></div> </div>
http://elevatedifference.com/review/velvet-jihad-muslim-women%E2%80%99s-quiet-resistance-islamic-fundamentalism#commentsBooksFaegheh ShiraziUniversity of Florida PressYoginder SikandconservativefundamentalismIslamjihadMuslimmuslim womenpatriarchyresistanceThu, 19 Aug 2010 08:00:00 +0000admin294 at http://elevatedifference.comPromised Virgins: A Novel of Jihadhttp://elevatedifference.com/review/promised-virgins-novel-jihad
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<div class="author"><a href="/author/jeffrey-fleishman">Jeffrey Fleishman</a></div><div class="publisher"><a href="/publisher/arcade-publishing">Arcade Publishing</a></div> </div>
<p><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1559708972?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=feminrevie-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=1559708972">Promised Virgins</a></em> echoes of stories already told; they howl and yowl in your ear as Jeffrey Fleishman whispers and intimates, ever beseeching that you withstand his narrative a moment longer. Fleishman relies on the threads of past to weave his story, devices used before by film writers and the novelists who inspired them. Perhaps that is why the spirits bellow in your ear as you read; it is all too familiar, too ready to be seen as images flitting across a screen, even more so than it is to be read.</p>
<p>Begun like a tale of <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393331660?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=feminrevie-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=0393331660">Arabian Nights</a></em>, and threaded as such throughout, this story begins on the eve of a war. It is on the eve of U.S. involvement in Bosnia, when a woman and a man meet in darkness. It is a time when fates are still unraveling, and a mysterious bearded man bearing dates on a mule can upset the inertia and create jihad.</p>
<p>Told by Jay and from his point of view, this is the story not of him but of relationships–of his own and of those near him. Mostly, however, like so many other books, this is a story about a girl, Alija, and about the man who loves her, Jay.</p>
<p>Alija is an Albanian, a girl Jay found in a refugee camp who assumed the role of his translator. As Jay and Brian traipse across the country searching for the Dateman, Alija comes along searching for her missing brother. And as the conflict begins to assume stronger shades of religious strife, Jay queries, “What is it about spirituality and the unspoiled woman?” in response to himself as he imagines Vijay, a local reporter friend, would, that “temptation and virtue move through chaos,” as does Alija.</p>
<p>Alija, the central character, is not a promised virgin. She is spoiled, yet the narrative elevates her to the position of the only pristine character and a ready contrast is provided to the only other female character in the novel, Megan. Jay, sleeps with both; however, he only sleeps with Megan in the metaphoric sense. Megan is giving, a doctor who follows conflict and encounters its hardships in the worst ways while she is never a participant or a victim. First encountering her in this incarnation, Jay’s first remembers how she would cry during sex. While the others give of themselves willingly, Alija is taken. Alija, however, rarely cries.</p> <div>
<span class="reviewer-names"><strong>Written by:</strong> <a href="/reviewer/elisheva-zakheim">Elisheva Zakheim</a></span>, August 6th 2009 </div>
<div class="tag-list">Tags: <a href="/tag/abuse">abuse</a>, <a href="/tag/bosnia">Bosnia</a>, <a href="/tag/jihad">jihad</a>, <a href="/tag/novel">novel</a>, <a href="/tag/relationships">relationships</a>, <a href="/tag/war">war</a></div> </div>
http://elevatedifference.com/review/promised-virgins-novel-jihad#commentsBooksJeffrey FleishmanArcade PublishingElisheva ZakheimabuseBosniajihadnovelrelationshipswarThu, 06 Aug 2009 16:28:00 +0000admin801 at http://elevatedifference.com